And does it matter for the addicts?
Based on her observations rather than a medical theory, Dr. Meg Patterson invented Neuroelectric therapy, or NET, in the 1970s. This treatment uses transcranial electrical stimulation to reduce or eliminate the cravings associated with trying to kick drug habits, making drugs much easier to kick. Eric Clapton and Keith Richards have credited their recoveries to it, but star power does not make medical science.
Net has won few followers in the medical community, but it's getting its day in court, or at least, in clinical trials. The Independent (UK) has an in-depth report on both the new trials and the effects as reported by the people who have administered and used it.
Testing something like this runs into two very hard problems: one is that the placebo group is never really a placebo group. Doing anything to enhance your mental health pretty much can work in a weird way. If you are trying to fix a problem like addiction or depression, and you feel like there's something you can do, rather than feeling helpless, you're pretty much halfway there even if the something is having no clinical effect. Unlike, say, a broken leg, changing your attitude means you've changed the underlying physical problem, at least a bit.
The other is specific to NET; how the heck do you get the control group to think they've been hit with AC without actually hitting them with AC? It's a hard feeling to fake. The best most studies have done is used a level of current lower than what NET maker Seaboard recommends. But since no one knows for sure how it's working, any level of current could be helping.
Or just the act of doing something about the cravings could be working. Only more study can tell.
